The Bookseller.com

17th May 2008

Polly Jaffé is co-owner of the Jaffé & Neale Bookshop in Chipping Norton.

Think local, act local

10.03.08

I am standing in a field taking photographs of Friesian cows on a wet Wednesday in February. The heavens are about to open, and I have minutes left before I am going to be late for collecting my children from school. How, I ask myself, have I got here, and what on earth has this got to do with improving bookselling in the Cotswolds? Is this really going to keep us at the forefront of independent bookselling for the next decade? I'm not sure my colleagues at Sherratt & Hughes in Notting Hill Gate prepared me for this in my bookselling induction all those years ago.

I think I can explain. We have decided to sell ice cream in our cafe, and have found a fantastic local producer. We thought our customers might like to meet the cows that produce the milk that makes the ice cream. So I have been charged with capturing them on film. We want to connect with our customers and our suppliers to make what we do as transparent as possible. We want to prove our local credentials in a way that no chain or internet site possibly could. Maybe the next step is to go and photograph authors in their natural habitat while they are chewing the cud.

This photography mission doesn't sell the ice cream. It certainly doesn't sell books. But we are confident that it will assist us in explaining our core values to our customers far better than any mission statement. The pictures are of local animals producing a high-quality product. Somehow, these beautiful, adorable bovine creatures give integrity to our endeavours that we cannot. Also, it's essential that the cafe is not just an add-on but that it reflects our attitude and passion for bookselling.

We want to display to customers that we choose carefully and that there is fun and thought in the choices we make. Somehow these pictures, which we'll display on the wall next to the tills, will reaffirm for our customers that we can be trusted. The ingredients of the books we choose will equally be of a high-quality, full-fat "cream", with no homogenised or reconstituted "skimmed milk". So even though we haven't had the courage to go into ice cream production like Elaine Silverwood at SilverDell in Kirkham, we want to reassure our customers that we have their best interests at heart. As long as they take regular exercise, that is.

On top of that, children will love the pictures. That reminds me: I'm going to be late collecting my children.